Menasha Bluejays baseball team has been riding strong pitching and defense to first place in the Bay Conference
MENASHA – For the Menasha Bluejays baseball team, the pitching and defense are both good.
The hitting?
“I think like we talked about over there (in the postgame meeting), frustrated is the word of choice,” Menasha coach Nick Carlson said. “We’ve been struggling at the plate a little bit, struggling these last few games. We’ve got to figure it out.”
The hits didn’t fall in a 4-2 loss to the Seymour Thunder on Thursday night and since a 15-1 win over Green Bay East/West, the Bluejays − who are pursuing their third straight Bay Conference title − have scored 17 runs in their last five games while going 3-2.
How do the players and coaches figure it out?
Senior infielder Ty Carlson said they’ll go to the tape and watch their at-bats.
“A lot of us are dropping our hands right now,” the senior said. “A lot of pop flies. We’ll just work on fixing our swings and keeping our hands high.
“We have our games from last year on GameChanger. We can all look back at our old swings. It definitely helps with the video work.”
Even with back-to-back 4-2 losses to Seymour, the Bluejays are still sitting in first place but are tied with the Thunder. Menasha has five losses but the Bluejays have 10 wins with three conference games and three nonconference games left. Seymour, meanwhile, has a 9-4 record with five games left to play in the Bay.
Menasha is home against Xavier on Friday, while Seymour plays at home against New London.
While the runs haven’t been coming across the plate like the team would like, the Menasha pitching has been excellent with a team earned run average of less than 2.00.
“We have two returning senior pitchers who are both going to play college baseball,” coach Carlson said. “One (Quinn Ludvigsen) at Minnesota State, one (Ian Dohms) at Coastal Alabama. Our lefty (Jacob Coopman) is an Impact Sports Academy kid, low 80s with a change-up and good curveball.
“We definitely have good pitching.”
And definitely great camaraderie.
The Bluejays are a boisterous bunch with a dugout that is anything but silent when a teammate is at the plate.
“I feel like camaraderie is the biggest part of the game,” Ludvigsen said. “I feel like we’re a brotherhood. We’re a tight-knit group. We’ve been playing the game together for multiple years.”
That all-for-one, one-for-all feeling comes from the seniors, according to Ty Carlson.
“Our seniors really lead this team,” he said. “They lead by example in and out of the classroom. They are always trying to help out the younger guys.”
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There is a solid strategy in Menasha’s backloading the schedule with nonconference games at the end of the season.
“We went to Florida for our non-official games down there,” coach Carlson said. “We came back here and we play three games against each conference opponent and I’m not a big fan of playing four days a week unless we have to.
“Since we’re Division 1 in the (WIAA) playoffs and a D2 conference, the last couple of weeks are open. That’s when we schedule our nonconference games to get ready for the playoffs.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Menasha Bluejays baseball team eyes another Bay Conference title
